Local Governance Reform

The present local government system has been weakened by politicisation, corruption and inter-party feuds, such that councils spend more time on constant partisan squables than on development. PROGRESS will dismantle this model and replace it with a people-centred system that puts decision￾making and accountability at the community level. At the foundation will be Village Development Committees (VDCs), chosen in democratic village 4 elections and structured to include youth, women, elders and persons with disabilities so that every group has a voice. From this base, representation will move upward to the district, regional and national levels through universal suffrage, with candidates selected on the strength of their ideas, competence and service to their communities rather than party label. To stop leakages in local governance, revenue collection will be centralised at the national level and shared back to the regions through automatic, transparent allocations. To further reduce costs and political tensions, parliamentary and presidential elections will be held on the same day. In this new dispensation, local governance will be driven by community priorities, fairness and service and not partisanship or personality clashes.